Thursday, March 4, 2010

Northstar picked up another 6 inches yesterday with the second piece of the storm bringing two day totals to 9 inches. It would be nice if a storm this year could take an unexpected track and hit us harder than expected instead of the other way around. With the third piece of the storm taking a turn just to our South last night we ended up around a foot short overall on snow totals. Northstar was a victim of shadowing from the crest on the first two pieces of the storm with Donner Summit picking up 2 feet of snow.

One thing the storm did bring is cold air that is here to stay for at least a week. Highs won't break freezing all week up on the mountains and will be in the 30's at lake level.

Next storm for the weekend is going to dive down the coast and come in over Southern CA. This has been the typical pattern this winter thanks to El Nino. We will be in a cold and showery pattern starting this weekend with a chance at a light dusting every other day as storms pound the Pacific NW and we get the Southern edge La Nina style. Storm for Wednesday looks to have a shot at coming a bit further South and giving us accumulating snows. Good news is that there won't be any melting for at least a week.

Going into the 3rd week of March a ridge is going to build along the West coast. It looks like maybe our last shot at the El Nino jetstream coming under the ridge to give us a prolonged period of storms. Going into the end of the month the blocking should break down and allow storms to wander in the last few weeks of the snow season. BA